


Sour Honey

by strawberrylemonade1225



Series: Voltron One Shots [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Homesickness, Insecurity, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 15:24:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10902105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrylemonade1225/pseuds/strawberrylemonade1225
Summary: A collection of the few times that Keith has wanted to say something but didn't, unable to get the words out of his throat.(Basically a 5+1 but I didn't realize that until the end.)





	Sour Honey

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fic. Woo!  
> Two things before the story is  
> 1\. This is unbetaed, so it may be filled with horrendous spelling/grammar errors so I apologize for that and  
> 2\. Lance's depictions of insecurities are loosely based off of my own. I felt like that was how I could make his character come off as more... I guess, genuine, in this story.  
> Anyway, thanks for reading!!
> 
> EDIT:: I may make a sequel of this, but in Lance's perspective. It wouldn't have the same events, but it would be in the same universe, and it would be titled Strawberry Champagne. Would you guys want to read that?

The first time that Keith wanted to say something but didn't was when he first ran back into Lance McClain.

He came walking towards him with an annoyed look on his face, taking Shiro's other arm and putting it over his shoulder, supporting him as well. Keith just blinked over at him, confused as to why this was happening.

"Who are you?" he had asked at the time, but he had a vague feeling that he remembered this loud mouthed tan boy from somewhere. After he sputtered and explained himself, Keith squinted at him and spoke again. "Oh, wait. I remember you."

He had wanted to continue after that, to go into detail with everyway that McClain had gotten under his skin, like his annoying way of talking, or how he just so managed to get food in Keith's hair at least once every two weeks during lunch when he was still at the Garrison.

He wanted to make a remark on the way he had declared Keith his rival during the first week of knowing each other, and Keith just went along with it because he had nothing to say. He wanted to remark on the way that the one time that they had worked together on a simulation, Lance had managed to screw it up by being too focused on throwing Keith off of his game.

He spared a glance at Shiro's state and realized that there wasn't any time to be completely reunited with Lance McClain so he just stuck with summarizing it all.

"You're a cargo pilot."

\---

The second time that Keith didn't speak his mind was when they had been in space for only a few days at the most and he saw Lance on the observation deck, just looking out into the endless black of space.

His posture had been tense and he was frowning, which was weird seeming as how Keith had guessed by then that his smile was permanently on his face. His arms had also been crossed and it looked like he was trying to hide himself in his jacket.

Keith lingered by the door then, almost daring to step inside, but he only observed, the moment feeling too emotionally heavy for him to feel comfortable with. 

He had wanted to walk over to Lance, to maybe ask him what was wrong, or try to comfort him, but he knew he wouldn't be able to offer him any comfort. He sucked at that sort of thing.

The tension in the air felt so thick to Keith that it was almost like he was drowning in it, and he had to walk away after a few more minutes of the empty silence, his footsteps echoing down the hall and leaving Lance to drown in his own thoughts.

\----

The third time was after their bonding moment.

He brought in up to Lance, feeling anger prickle his skin when he denied remembering it at all, his blood just short of simmering. He knew he must've looked ridiculous by then, getting so worked up over something that the other party involved didn't seem to care about, but it was important to him. He had thought that the rift between him and Lance that Lance had created had finally been patched up.

Lance had told him that they did make a good team, had dragged himself out of a coma to protect his teammate and to bond with Keith, only to forget it all.

Keith wanted to keep arguing that he was correct, that Shiro and Pidge had been there to see it. He wanted to prove Lance wrong, to prove to Lance that they were capable of more than just petty fights.

He opened his mouth to do just that, but the words ended up sticking in his throat like honey. Sour, spoiled honey, extremely disgusting and sticking to every surface it touched, making it hard to breathe and making Keith's lungs burn. He couldn't force out any of his argument and the topic quickly changed, his internal struggle unknown to his teammates.

After a while, the honey seemed to disappear, leaving a dull ache in his lungs and a slight pain when he breathed, confusing the hell out of Keith when this illogical pain only seemed to heighten when he caught sight of Lance for the rest of that day.

He decided to ignore the absurdity of it and instead went up to Coran, asking if there is any possibility that using the healing pod could erase your recent memories. The question confused Coran until something seemed to click in his mind silently and he smiled softly at Keith and answered him. Keith didn't trust the look on his face.

(The answer was no, unless you were being treated for severe head injuries. Was Lance being treated for a severe head injury? Keith didn't know why just thinking that sentence seemed to twist his stomach like a rag with worry. He decided to ignore it.)

\---

The fourth time was a while after that, probably the space equivalent of four months.

Lately, things had been calm, Voltron easily slicing through enemies and taking down anyone who dared to attack them. Their main focus had been answering distress signals, saving lives and building alliances before they even tried to face Zarkon himself.

They had landed on a planet that was rather alike Earth, lighting up a feeling of nostalgia in nearly everyone. The differences were that the residents of said planet were either dramatically short or dramatically tall, each sporting some kind of face paint at all times, the planet had some really long and hard to pronounce name, and the "water" was a shade of deep purple. (The locals assured them that it was safe to drink, but considering the fact that Pidge willingly drank a few cupfuls then spent the next few hours swaying and spouting nonsense, they stuck to their own water).

Still, despite that, the resemblance of that planet compared to Earth was uncanny.

They day was laid back, no real pressure on their backs as Allura worked out an alliance with the leader. The paladins were exploring this planet and just relaxing in general.

Keith had been walking along the shoreline of the purple ocean when he caught sight of Lance up ahead. His chest started doing that thing where it felt like it was closing up and he frowned at himself. It felt like he was drowning while he was only standing next to the water.

He walked towards Lance, seeing him tense when he heard the footsteps. His head darted up and locked onto Keith's eyes before he could stop himself.

Keith noticed that he was crying, huddled in his jacket and looking like he was trying to sink into the sand.

Without a second thought, Keith rushed over, no words escaping his mouth as he dropped to sit beside Lance as he was trying to now hide his face from Keith. He let out a low curse in when he felt him sit, but jolted up when Keith pulled an arm around him.

"It's okay to not be... okay," Keith said then, his voice low. He wanted to continue, to tell Lance that he was homesick too, that he understood him, but he really didn't, he supposed.

All he had on Earth was a shack in the desert. All he had were people who got irritated at him because of his hotheadedness, all he had was... nothing. So that's what he said. Nothing.

It felt like the acidic honey was burning into his throat again, making him want to claw at it to stop the pain, but Lance speaking up had him stop before he could even start.

Lance relaxed into him and mumbled, "Can I tell you about my family?"

Keith didn't know what would happen if he tried to speak, so he only nodded and Lance launched into storytelling mode, his voice fonder than Keith had ever heard it before.

\----  
The fifth time was a month later. There had been some kind of shift between himself and Lance, but Keith wasn't sure on how to place it. He just knew that it had happened and he felt his chest warm whenever he thought of it.

The team was back on the ship, back in the middle of the inky black endlessness of space. Back to cutting through the sky with their lions and sitting through team meetings. With that, though, there was still the downtime after missions.

Keith had been on his way to the training deck when a hand that suddenly shot out grabbed his wrist. He yelped and spun in the direction of where the hand pulled him, about the start fighting. He raised his fists and glared at the owner of said hand, but backed down quickly when he noticed that it was just Lance.

"Hey, hey, calm down," the boy said, raising his hands in false surrender and Keith stood up straightly, his face flushing when embarrasement hit. His mouth remained, however, as Lance continued to talk.

"Everyone's either asleep or holed up in their room. I tried to get Pidge to show me whatever she's working on, but she just locked her door. Hunk is apparently experimenting with food and such. He let me watch but then he started talking engineering while cooking and I was so confused that I left. So here we are," he explained, putting down his hands but leaving one up to awkwardly scratch the back of his neck. "Do you want to hang out?"

Keith felt the pink dust his cheeks again but didn't feel too bad when he saw that it was the same for Lance. He nodded his head and said, "Yes."

They ended up in Lance's room. They both sat on the bed but eventually they fell backwards, folding their arms behind their head and staring up at the ceiling as if they could see the stars from there.

"Do you think Alteans had light up in the dark glow stars?" Lance asks at one point, and it's so out of the blue that Keith coughs out a laugh. He doesn't see the way Lance looks at him, fond eyes and smile.

"Why would they need them? They're surrounded by the galaxy."

"True, true, my dude," Lance says then, apparently not done there. "Hey, Keith?"

"Yeah?"

"You know I never really hated you, right?"

"You didn't?"

"No," he says, shaking his head.

"Why'd you act like you did, then?"

"Jealousy? Stupidity of a teenager? I dunno," he trailed off, and Keith heard a huff of a laugh, and when he looked at hin, there was a smile on his face and sadness in his eyes. "I've dragged you into so many serious talks lately, I have no idea what's gotten into me. I'm sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for."

"I dunno," he shrugged again, closing his eyes. "Maybe space is making me all emotional and stuff. I'm Lance, I'm the cool one, you know, the lady's man. The class clown, not the class depressor, if that's even a thing."

Keith didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't. He just kept his eyes on Lance, who's eyes shut tighter.

"I've always... I've always felt like a... some type of third wheel, even if the other two people aren't even in a relationship. Even when I'm by myself. Being on this ship makes me a seventh wheel, I guess."

"Don't speak like that," Keith choked out, the words hard to get out of his throat. It wasn't like he didn't believe them, it was just that he was horrible at expressing himself in ways that didn't sound stupid. He was horrible at comforting others, even worse so when comforting those he loved.

Ah, this is what this is, isn't it? He thought to himself.

"But isn't that the truth?" He asked, opening his eyes and turning his head towards Keith. There was a tear sliding down his face. "'Just don't get in the way and we can get a good grade, Lance,' people would say, others more blunt to the point of 'How did someone as stupid as you even make it into this school?'. I just hate it Keith, I... I fucking hate it."

After he admitted that, he sat up suddenly and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. Keith sat up as well and watched Lance do what he was doing.

"Ah, geez, I brought you here to hang out, not for a therapy session. I really go off on tangents, don't I? So annoying," he rambled out, the words mixing together and his voice breaking. "Just ignore me, don't mind me. You can- I'll leave if you want me to? Do you want me to?"

Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and laid back down. He didn't say anything, but somehow Lance got the message and laid down as well, uncurling out of himself and fisting a hand in Keith's shirt, a sob tearing from his throat. Keith rubbed his back as if to say 'I'm not going anywhere, Lance. Don't worry.'

He didn't need words.

("Keith! You're the first human I've seen in a day, come here!"

"Pidge? Okay..."

"Look what I made!"

"Is that a-"

"Yep it's a remote controlled car! Pretty cool, right? I've hooked up a camera so that we can use it in missions and stuff."

"That is cool, but... you know what would be even cooler?"

"Enlighten me."

"If it needed exactly seven wheels to work."

"What? What vehicle needs seven wheels?"

"Not yours, apparently. What, are you scared that you won't be able to do it?"

"Is that a challenge, Kogane?"

"I don't know, is it, Gunderson?"

"You're on."

Keith didn't say anything when he noticed Lance's confused but rather bright smile when Pidge explained to the team that her car needed exactly seven wheels to function the next week.)

\---  
The sixth time happened a whole give months later.

The sixth time wasn't actually a sixth time. It was quite the opposite, one of the things Keith had thought that he had gotten under control but apparently had not.

One of the times where Keith let his impulses take control of what he said.

Him and Lance (it was always him and Lance, wasn't it?) had escaped from a celebratory party that the planet had thrown after the defenders of Voltron had saved them. They hid in the alien equivalent of a closet, which was more like a small bedroom, sitting across from each other and talking quietly.

Keith had gotten overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people there, also feeling like everyone's eyes were on him now that his Galra DNA was actually showing. Purple spiderwebed across his face and purple ears protruded from the sides of his head. It made him feel gross.

The time that Lance had touched those same ears that Keith deemed gross on a day when Keith was closer than ever to breaking down and muttered, "You're beautiful," was never mentioned. They didn't speak about it, but they both certainly remembered it.

Keith hugged his knees to his chest and Lance examined his nails, holding his hand straight out in front of him. Keith took the time while he was distracted to just look at his face.

He had a slight pout on his lips and one eye was squinted a bit more than the other. Keith feel his heart squeeze in his chest and his mouth opened before he could stop it.

"Hey, Lance?"

"Hm?" He hummed as a way of acknowledgement.

"I think I fell in love with you."

The silence that followed was defeaning. It wasn't because Lance was staring at him now through his fingers in shock, but it was because Keith was sure he looked just as shocked. He was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open.

"...What?"

Keith realized that there was no way he could get himself out of this situation, so he just plowed forward with it.

"During the year that we've been in space, I fell in love with you along the way."

Lance's face contorted into one of sadness even as he slid forward a bit. "This isn't your idea of some sick joke, right? Like, are you sure."

Keith felt irritation prick him slightly. "I would never joke with someone with something like this."

"Okay, but I've seen those movies where-"

"Lance McClain, I love you more than the universe, and I would know because I've seen the entire universe."

"Did you... did you just use a pick up line to shut me up?"

"Yeah. Did it work?"

"Yes," he breathed out, a grin lighting up his face in the dark closet. In the span of their short conversation, they had scooted a lot closer to each other. Keith's eyes darted down to Lance's lips and had no acidic honey in his throat to stop him from saying what he said next.

"I'm going to kiss you now."

"I think I'd die if you didn't."

The kiss was less of a kiss and more of a peck. Apparently that was not enough for Lance and he put his hand on the back of Keith's neck, pulling him in quicker for a second longer and sweeter kiss.

"I love you," Keith said again when they parted, his forehead still against Lance's. Lance closed his eyes and smiled softly.

"I love you too, Keith," he whispered, so quietly that Keith almost didn't hear him. 

Keith felt the honey settle in his stomach, his throat feeling fully clear for the first time since his first year at the Garrison.

("I still cannot believe you shut me up with a pick up line, because honestly, I felt like thay would have been my place in this relationship and-"

"I would say I would cool down your heart, but you're the one with the ice blast, so I'll just stick to keeping it on fire."

"...Why are you so smooth with this?!"

Keith fingergunned at him.

"It's in my DNA, babe.")


End file.
